Limerick gloves, also known as chickenskin, were imported from Ireland and were popular with men and women, due to their fineness.
In Gloves by Valerie Cumming on p 57 she says: generally speaking, the preference was for natural-coloured (buff, tan, yellow) and white kid, doeskin and Limerick (chickenskin) gloves... They are of an exceedingly fine skin, very smooth and they are yellow. There are plenty of fashion plate illustrations of yellow gloves being worn.They would have been very elegant and of course fitted snugly to the hands and arms.
I know this type of glove was very fashionable for evening wear around the turn of the 18th century. The number 51 written inside one glove is perplexing. Does it mean the maker made at least 51 pairs of these gloves. I don't think the number is the date when they would have been worn during the mid 18th century.
From the Roger Warner Collection January 2009
Of finest ulra fine dyed egg yolk yellow kid gloves with long elegant fingers, decorative seaming stitched in ivory silk, the thumbs with a double line of stitching, the sides seams in yellow silk, inside one glove is written in beautiful original hand written script Ryan? Limerick and 51, the second glove some initials.
Basically they are in very good condition. Glove 1 needs conservation to the seam round the thumb. There is one pin prick hole. Glove 2 - has a few areas of rust markings, a large head of a pin size hole near the cuff. A curved repair at the cuff, not very well done, which a conservator could improve.
Gloves by Valerie Cumming, p 45 and 57.
Fashion in Detail Lucy Johnston p154/5. For a similar glove.
What Clothes Reveal Linda Baumgarten p 117 for similar gloves dating from 1780.
Fashion, Kyoto Costume Institute p 104 worn with a 1790-5 gown.
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